


Training Days

by Zimothy



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: (pre)Tallest character development, Character Study, Gen, Inspired by Beowulf, Irken elite training, Some Ableism, There's some Red and Zim bonding, discussions of defectiveness, literature references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27082282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zimothy/pseuds/Zimothy
Summary: During an Irken Elite training mission on a dangerous alien planet, Red and Zim are separated from their usual partners and have to work together in order to survive and make it to safety. Over the course of their journey and multiple run-ins with danger, Red gets to know Zim on a more personal level, and he discovers why he has so much patience for Zim's antics...
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Red & Zim
Comments: 35
Kudos: 94





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I published a story so I'm super excited about this one! I'd like to thank RissyNicole, author of 'A Parade of Indignities' and other short stories, for being my beta reader. If you haven't already read her stories, please check them out!

Red always hated training missions that took place on foreign planets not yet owned by the Irken Empire. 

They usually comprised of rough terrain and unintelligent indigenous lifeforms. It’s a complete waste to just leave it as it is, just train and leave. No, they should just take it while they have the opportunity to and turn it into something useful. 

Screw running around and preparing for whatever military conflict they’ll eventually face; turn the planet into something that can advance Irkens instead. 

Of course Red couldn’t talk about these opinions of his while he was still a trainee. His superiors did not take suggestions. 

If he were to be given a leadership role in the future, he already knew of several plans he'd implement for Irk. But for now, he was still in training, and he was still forced to partake in training on unconquered planets. 

Red stood straight, lined up next to his fellow elites. Purple, who like him shared a strange color-themed name, stood by his right side. He was one of the few people he didn’t mind talking to. The two of them seemed to be on the same wave-length, and they both disliked the same people, so it helped. 

However, to Red’s left, standing just at his shoulders, was Zim. 

Zim was unable to stand still. He often swayed back and forth, kicking at the dirt beneath him with his boot, humming some stupid song. He was the absolute worst of the batch of elites he was grouped with.

Red felt a little pity for the Irken. Zim was annoying and loud, but it wasn’t like he could help it. While the other Irkens were quick to snap at Zim, Red often found himself humoring the little guy. He and Purple would laugh about it afterward, but Red really was trying to be decent to the best of his ability.

Before them stood Commander Poki. With her loud imposing voice she began to bark instructions. 

“Here on Beo Wulf, this rocky terrain is home to some terribly nasty creatures called Grendels. While they are not intelligent, they are vicious…And yes, they have killed a few elites in past missions around these parts,” Poki announced. “This means you will have to be cautious as you navigate through this landscape. Improvise and adapt, making it to the checkpoint alive is your goal.” 

The elites whispered amongst themselves. Talks of what routes to find, what they’ll do when they run into creatures, and of course finding what partners to stick with. 

Red always stuck with Purple. With one look, they both agreed on what they were going to do. They were going to follow Red’s plans as they usually did.

Red had already decided that they would head out north. Poki didn’t reveal the location of the checkpoint, but it made logical sense to him that it would likely be straight from where they gathered them. If Red were wrong, he could always climb to the highest point of this planet and get a better view of where they should be going. 

Poki raised her hand and with a swift motion, indicated for the elites to get moving while it was still daylight. 

Red took off forward with Purple close beside him. A few other trainees had the same idea. 

Part of the training was to figure out how to navigate through unknown and dangerous terrain. Red was never one to enjoy ‘following the crowd’ and ‘doing whatever everyone else was doing.’ Those who succeed carve their own path. 

As they ventured into what turned into a rocky trench, tall rock walls preventing the small Irkens from seeing the rest of their surroundings, Red decided to seek higher ground. 

They were at a point in which there was only one way to go, just one straight line. But given the number of paths that they crossed that looked blocked due to rockfall, Red was sure that there was more than one path to follow. 

Red found a corner, an acute angle sticking out of the path that they were in, so he ran in and hid in the crevasse. Purple did the same and they both observed the other elites continue on their straight pathway. 

He gestured for Purple to follow him and he released his PAK legs, using them to climb the 6 ft walls. As he climbed the unsteady rocks, a few of them got loose and tumbled down below. 

Purple quickly dodged. Once he was out of danger he started to yell up at Red. “You almost smushed me! Stop it!”

“It’s not my fault! These rocks are unsteady,” Red talked back. “You should probably head up here before it gets worse.”

“Nuh-uh.” Purple crossed his arms and shook his head no. 

Red fought back the urge to roll his eyes. 

“No one else is going to take this path. It’ll just be you and me and we’ll beat the other elites this way. Don’t you want to come in first?” he insisted. 

With his PAK legs situating him in place, he extended an arm for Purple to take. Purple stood in thought for a moment before relenting and climbing up with his PAK legs, taking Red’s hand and allowing him to hoist him up to the top. 

From where they were they could see the elaborate maze ahead of them. The trenches worked as a complex network, many different paths going in all sorts of different directions. Then Red saw it, a mountainous area in the far distance with a little flag planted on top. It was too far from his eyes to see the design on the flag clearly, but given that the creatures on this planet were dumb, he was sure it was an Irken flag. It was where the checkpoint was. 

He looked at the path to the left of them, the one that was initially hidden from them. It was blocked due to fallen rocks. 

“That’s where we’ll go.” Red pointed towards it, jumping down, PAK legs guiding him to land perfectly on both his feet. 

Purple followed, pleased by the advantage that Red had gained for them. 

Red would brag more, but Purple often got upset at the implications that he was a follower. Granted, he was, because Red was the one with plans and Purple was the one who helped him execute them. 

As they traveled further down this hidden path, it soon became clear to Red that it wasn’t entirely as hidden as he had thought. His antennae twitched in response to the stray sounds of gravel and soot being crushed under footsteps that didn’t belong to him and Purple. 

Red grabbed Purple by the shoulder and covered Purple’s mouth before he could make a sound, gesturing to the approaching noises growing closer. Purple grabbed his training laser gun from out of his PAK and pointed it forward. 

“Show yourself!” he shouted, despite Red’s initial insistence of keeping quiet. 

The sound momentarily stopped before starting back up at a higher velocity, fast approaching. An indistinguishable figure peeked itself out of one of the labyrinth’s corners. All Red could recognize was the distinct form of Irken antennae.

“Hey, wait a minute-“ Red attempted to stop any hostilities before they started, but Purple had determined that whoever was sneaking around needed to be shot at. 

He pulled the trigger and fired at the shadow, causing whoever it was to quickly hide away. Red heard two voices shout in response to the shot. 

“Did I get em?” Purple asked. 

Once the dust settled, the figure jumped right back out at them with their own laser gun in hand. 

It was Zim, ready to shoot right back at them. Purple also raised his gun again and Red was quick to stop him before more shots could be fired. Skoodge also appeared behind Zim and did the same. 

“You can’t kill other elites, idiot!” Red punched Purple’s shoulder, then he turned back to Zim and Skoodge. “What are you two doing here?”

“We’re taking the superior path, duh!” Zim retorted. “You are not the only Irken here who uses resourcefulness to get ahead!” 

“You just followed us, didn’t you?” Red questioned. 

“Zim doesn’t follow!” Zim talked back. 

“But I thought that was what we were doing?” Skoodge asked Zim, seemingly confused at Zim’s apparent ‘change of plans.’

Zim looked mortified at Skoodge outing him like that but Red couldn’t care less. 

“Stop being creepy and find your own path. Stop following us,” was all Red replied as he turned his back away from them. 

“Yeah! Stop following us!” Purple repeated to really hammer it in. 

Unfortunately for them, no matter how many times you try to get Zim to listen, he just doesn’t. 

“You can’t claim this path!” Zim insisted, picking up the pace with his little legs to catch up with them. 

“Get lost.” Red snapped back, his already thin patience growing even thinner.

Zim’s response to this was to continue to get in Red’s way as if his small stature could even block Red to begin with. Skoodge and Purple stood silently, watching the situation continue to escalate.

One of the worst things about Zim, outside of his general annoyingness, was that he was incredibly stubborn. He was literally incapable of taking no for an answer. The only way to get Zim to get off of his case was to convince him to do something else, but Red was steadily losing time to make it to the checkpoint first.

Maybe, _just maybe,_ nothing bad would happen with letting Zim tag along. 

“Ugh…Whatever,” Red relented. 

Zim threw his hands up in victory, skipping ahead of everyone.

The four of them walked through Beo Wulf’s intricate mazes. They had successfully alienated themselves from all the other elites…There were no more sounds other than Zim’s obnoxious singing, which was aggravating and distracted Red from staying cautious in their environment. 

Apparently there were some ferocious creatures on this planet, and yet…none of them had appeared yet. Either they were hiding, were distracted by the majority of other elites, or were silently stalking them. 

Even if things were fine now, there was a chance things could get dangerous. Purple never thought ahead, Skoodge was a follower, and Zim was misfortune incarnate. If Red was going to even survive this challenge, he had to rely on every strategy he’d been taught thus far. 

Along their walk, Purple nudged Red. “Why’d you let him come with us? He’s annoying!” he asked in a hushed voice, as if he were trying to whisper but couldn’t keep his voice down out of irritation. 

“We’ll ditch him soon enough,” Red properly whispered.

“Are we though?” Purple questioned. 

“What do you mean? Of course we are.”

“You always say that, but every time Zim causes trouble you go easy on him!” Purple exclaimed as if it were some well-known fact, but that comment made Red pause. 

“Yeah, but I don’t _like_ him, you know that. It’s just easier to deal with him when he’s not upset.” Red said. 

Purple stood there in silence with his arms crossed. 

An odd feeling caused his spooch to flutter. “What? I’m right!” Red argued. 

Skoodge had stopped, noticing their arguing, and grabbed onto Zim’s arm to prevent him from walking off. Zim, clearly irritated at their stopping, shouted back at them. 

“HEY! Hey, hurry up!” His loud high-pitched was impossible to ignore 

He waved as a quick acknowledgement to Skoodge and Zim, then turned back to whisper to Purple. 

“I’m just saying, you have a lot of patience for someone like him. Irkens aren’t really known for being patient” Purple said. “So what’s the deal?”

“There is no deal! I don’t care about Zim! In fact, I hate him!” Red frantically whispered. “I want to be on our own just as much as you do. Look, I’ll find us a different path right now.”

Red deployed his PAK legs, leaping onto one of the tallest points of the rocky walls, a precarious boulder that overlooked the planet. From this higher point, he could see that there was far more than just the mazes on this planet. While the flag was still in sight on the highest point of the terrain, there was a vast fjord surrounding the mountain. 

What Red had initially believed to be a dry and barren terrain had turned into something that was actually fertile and inhabitable, but only towards the center. The rest was covered with thick glaciers. That didn’t eliminate the possibility of any of the Grendels finding them where they were…but there was a stronger likelihood that a majority of those creatures resided by the lowlands of the mountain and river.

“Get down from there already!” Purple complained. 

“Yeah! We’re losing time!” Zim added impatiently. 

“I know that! That’s why I’m up here!” Red shouted back. 

Poor Skoodge stood relatively quiet amongst all the yelling. His antennae suddenly stood up straight, and he whipped his head right to left, looking for something. Then he focused on the boulder that Red had perched himself on.

“Hey, uh-“ he attempted to speak, but too bad it was overpowered by the louder voices amongst the group. 

“There’s like, this….long…river thingy. It’s surrounding the mountains, probably made by those glaciers or something.” Red tried to describe what he saw. 

“A fjord?” Purple replied, forehead furrowed. 

“…Yeah, that.” Red answered defeatedly, still attempting to continue his observations as best he could. “Anyway, it’s going to take a lot to get over there so we should start thinking of how we’ll be able to cross.” 

“We’ll just form a bridge, c’mon!” Zim shouted back. 

“Yeah, four Irkens can stretch across an entire ford.” Red said sarcastically, only to once again get corrected by Purple. 

“A fjord, Red.” 

“WHATEVER!” Red frustratedly yelled.

By then, he finally noticed. The tectonics below them were unstable, very subtly rumbling due to their reverberating voices. 

As Red steadied himself, his PAK legs dug into the boulder he stood on, effectively snapping the thin stem underneath it broke apart. Along with Red and the boulder, mass amounts of rocks tumbled down the side of the wall. 

All of the Irkens down below scrambled out of the way, scattering and hiding behind anything that could shield them from the rock slide. 

As he fell, Red repositioned himself, utilizing his PAK legs to prevent himself from getting hurt, only to have the lower right one get crushed under one of the falling rocks. He pulled hard, jabbing his claws into the dirt and pulling himself out of the way before he could get crushed, also causing his trapped PAK leg to break in half. 

From the force of the break, his body was thrown directly into someone else’s. 

Once the rockfall finally ceased, Red sat up to see that the path they were walking down was completely blocked, with no way to get around and far too unsteady to attempt to climb over…

“Hey! Are you okay over there?” Skoodge asked, his voice muffled by the new barrier, obviously not wanting to cause any more issues with the volatile land they were in. 

“Zim is fine,” the voice behind Red spoke up, and Red immediately backed away. For some reason he had just assumed he ran into Purple. That was usually how things went. 

“You!” Zim pointed at Red. “You’re so clumsy, look what you did.”

“I didn’t do that,” Red snapped back defensively before busying himself with trying to remove his trapped PAK leg from the rubble. There was no way to fix it in the situation they were in, but once they got to the checkpoint there was a possibility it could be reconnected and he wouldn’t have to wait for a replacement. 

“I don’t think there’s any way to get around this. We’ll have to split up,” Skoodge stated. He was right; Red would have said the same thing. 

“Ew! No!” Purple was quick to deny the switch-up. “Red, get over here!”

“I can’t! My PAK legs are broken.”

“Ughhh, fine, I’ll come to you then.” 

There was the sound of metal on rock, followed by the sound of rocks falling down and causing some poor Irken to plummet back down onto the ground with a painful smack. 

Purple was fine- he was groaning on the other side and learning the hard way that their plans had to change. 

“Okay…Guess we’ll have to find a different route,” he eventually resigned. 

“Keep moving north.” Red advised. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Purple replied. Then morbidly, Purple added, “Red? Don’t die.” 

Don’t die? Whose advice is ‘don’t die?’

Red turned to look at the small Irken next to him. Zim was distracted by a stray boulder that had made their northern path more narrow. He put all of his body weight into attempting to push it to the side but to no avail. It didn’t move an inch. Zim became frustrated in an instant, got out his laser gun, and blew the boulder into pieces. 

The pieces ricocheted and would have hit Red in the face if he hadn’t instinctually dodged them. 

Zim turned to him and showed him the biggest, dumbest grin imaginable. 

That’s when Red knew… _He was in more danger than he ever was before._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Red is by no means a good person, Irkens are all little assholes...but they are also a product of their militaristic and ableist upbringing. I'm exploring these characters as they are young and still in training and seeing how they form into the character they end up becoming in the series! It's very morally gray, so please keep that in mind! 
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Red was painfully aware of the fact that there was a very high chance that he could die, simply by being in close proximity to Zim.

There was a reason everyone hated Zim, a _good_ reason. 

Zim was a danger to all of Irken society. There had been instances where Zim somehow single-handedly destroyed and broke multiple things, even causing bodily harm. 

He didn’t do it on purpose. These sorts of things just _happened._

That’s why it was so scary. Zim didn’t even notice the destruction he caused, he wasn’t phased at all by Commander Poki lecturing him on why setting off bombs near other elites was a bad thing. He just didn’t get it. That might’ve been why Red tried to tolerate Zim and his antics, the reason he acted the way he did was because…

Well…

Zim was just someone to be wary of, especially when alone. 

Red and Zim walked side by side through the trenches, Purple and Skoodge long gone down a different path. 

They kept quiet, neither used to being isolated with each other nor working together. Zim and Red interacted exclusively through observations they made on their journey. Which paths looked safest to take, how the weather was faring, what kind of progress to expect from the pace they were at. 

Zim was the one who unexpectedly began small talk. 

“So why do you hang out with Purple?” 

Red was completely paralyzed. He hadn’t at all expected any level of introspection from Zim nor did he think Zim would ever question who he chose to hang out with.

Instead of answering, Red replied with a question of his own. 

“Why do _you_ hang out with Skoodge?” 

“Hey! I asked you first!” Zim combated.

“Yeah, but I’m taller,” Red teased. 

It was true! Now that he was standing closer to Zim than he normally would, he could see that Zim was just a little above his shoulders. If Red kept growing, Zim would continue to get smaller, too. 

Surprisingly, Zim relented easily, perhaps taking their size difference into account for once. 

“…He follows along with my plans and listens to what I say,” he answered. 

Strangely enough, that was a fair answer. It was a better response than Red was expecting. He actually found himself agreeing with the sentiments. 

“Same here,” Red replied. From his peripheral view, he could see Zim glancing up at him, but he continued to look forward as they walked aimlessly forward through Beo Wulf’s vast labyrinth. 

After an awkward amount of time of neither of them speaking to each other or saying much of anything, Zim decided to speak up once again. 

“Why is it that we don’t team up more often?” Zim questioned him. 

“Hm?” Red was taken aback by Zim’s oddly social behavior. He had assumed Zim was just as unhappy as he was, being outside of his usual routine. 

“We’ve known each other since we were smeets! You and I both share the qualities of a leader. We could have been combining our intellects to push us ahead of the other elites!” Zim fervently explained. 

It was strange to Red that Zim was into teamwork because more often than not Zim would get either distracted or too absorbed in what he was doing to care much for anyone else. 

He knew deep down that Zim never did it intentionally, but it always happened.

That’s what he was afraid of. 

Zim getting carried away and Red getting killed in the process. 

“Uh, well, you know…” Red droned off, desperately wishing to avoid giving Zim an answer. 

He made the mistake of turning to look at Zim and was met with huge, round magenta eyes looking straight into him. He donned an innocent expression. He genuinely didn’t know why Red didn’t like hanging out with him…

“You mean you really _don’t know?”_ he asked, dumbfounded. A part of him was hoping that Zim could come to the conclusion himself.

Zim stopped walking and Red was forced to stand and wait for him. Zim’s antennae hung low, almost down to his shoulders, and his curiosity turned into concern. Red was stuck where he was. He had to give Zim an answer or else they won’t get anywhere. 

“You’re…different,” Red said bluntly. 

“Of course Zim is different!” Zim replied, hands on his hips proudly. “Different is good!”

Oh Irk…He didn’t get it. 

“No, different isn’t good. It means you’re defective.” Red stated.

With that, Zim looked like he didn’t know how to respond. He was stuck, seemingly unable to comprehend that he was what Red said. 

Red almost felt bad, as if he’d cracked open Zim’s ignorance that kept him functioning as well as he could. 

Zim wasn’t great by any means. He completed his training as everyone else did, but did so in ways that completely went against any protocol Irkens were taught from day one. He could solve problems; they just had to be solved his way. He could work in teams, but his teammates were often expendable. 

All of that had gone unnoticed by Zim. Either that, or Zim was feigning his ignorance extraordinarily well. 

“I mean, it’s kind of obvious…” Red continued reluctantly, an uncomfortable smile drawn across his face. “You have issues with paying attention, you’re always destroying stuff, you’re unable to keep quiet, you even talk in the third person! You’re the only person I know who does that.” 

“N-not true, Zim- I mean, I…don’t do that.” Zim fumbled over his words, clearly trying very hard to push past his verbal tics in that moment. 

“It’s fine, I get that you can’t help it,” Red insisted. “but Irkens like you really shouldn’t…be here, doing missions like this. They probably should’ve just made you a table-headed service drone or something.” 

Zim stood in place, bewildered for just a moment as he took in everything Red was saying. Then, his face scrunched up into an expression of pure hurt.

 _“YOU_ BECOME A TABLE!” Zim exclaimed accusingly before storming off ahead. 

“Hey, hey!” Red shouted after him, catching up to him without much effort. “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing! It’s just true. Even a food service job would be safer for you and everyone! What I’m saying is with your defectiveness and track record for disasters, someone important is going to get killed! It could even be me! Or the Almighty Tallest!” 

“Zim is a loyal soldier! I would never commit the crimes you’re accusing me of!” Zim yelled back. He attempted to pick up the pace, but Red caught up to him with little effort. 

“Not intentionally! I’m telling you, you just don’t notice this stuff!” Red fought hard to get his point across. “Just listen to someone outside of yourself, for once, _listen.”_

“NO!” Zim bellowed.

“This is exactly why I don’t team up with you. You’re hopeless.” Red finally gave in. 

Zim was frustrating beyond words. Here he thought he could make Zim understand, but working with Zim in any form was impossible. He couldn’t fathom how Skoodge could even deal with Zim on a daily basis. Red was all ready to call it quits with the whole ‘teamwork’ crap. 

Once they approached a diverging path, Red positioned himself towards the right end of the road and then turned back to Zim. 

Zim had since refused to move from where he stood, his arms grasped firmly around himself, looking downcast. 

“Everyone in the platoon hates you,” Red added sharply. 

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have said that, but he was angry beyond words, too angry to feel any pity. 

Red turned around to leave, and then he heard, in the smallest voice he had ever heard Zim speak in…

_“I know they hate me.”_

Red had no time to respond to that statement as a horrid cry echoed out from the rock walls above them.

Lifting itself up by its lean clawed arms, a hideous creature emerged from the cliffs. It was one at first, its fleshy body just barely covered in a thin coat of wiry fur, its mouth full of razor-sharp carnivorous teeth. It was evident that these were the Grendels they were warned of. 

It called out again, its vocalizations resembling that of a tortured dying individual attempting to speak rather than a roar. More followed the first one, and they narrowed their black eyes at the little Irkens down below.

“Huntnoð!” The Grendels spoke. “Ábradwe heom!”

Then, as if on command, the creatures descended from the cliff. Red and Zim ran in the same direction down the right side path. 

Red glanced back at their attackers while running, horrified to find that the Grendels were far bigger than any tall Irken, faster than any tall Irken, and had absolute intentions in killing them. 

The two of them ran at full speed, taking sharp turns left and right, going completely off course in hopes of surviving the Grendels’ hunt. 

Zim got ahead of him by using his fully functional PAK legs. Red attempted to use his own but with just three functional legs instead of four, it proved to be difficult. As he took a dive after a fatal misstep, Red became face-to-face with a Grendel that pounced on top of him. 

Red used his already deployed front PAK legs to hold the lunging Grendel at a distance. The Grendel snarled, saliva dripping from its teeth and jowls and onto Red, its murderous face close enough to take a bite out of him. 

Red felt his PAK legs strain as the Grendel’s strength was beginning to overpower that of Irken technology. His mechanical joints were cracking under the pressure. 

Right before the Grendel was able to break past his feeble defense, it was shot in the head by a distant laser. Red looked up and saw Zim clinging to the rock walls by his PAK legs, laser gun in hand.

Red hoisted himself up, reaching for his own weapon, and shooting into the group. The Grendels that got hit fell onto the floor, writhing as their mucus-colored gore spilled out of them. Still, they persisted, many who had not been fatally shot rising back up and crying out angrily. 

“There’s too many!” Red proclaimed, slowly backing himself into a corner. 

He had no clue where he and Zim had ended up in their frantic attempt at escaping the Grendels, but wherever it was, there was no clear escape. Red could no longer climb as he had before. 

Purple had warned him not to die and here he was, about to die. 

The Grendels had climbed to where Zim was, reaching out for him with their mouths agape. Despite death being imminent, Zim didn’t look worried at all.

“ZIM!” Red screamed for him. 

He wanted to shout so much more. 

_Run! You idiot!_

_You’re probably small enough to get away if you just try!_

_I don’t want to die alone!_

Zim glanced at Red before pointing his laser gun at the rock the Grendel approaching him was perched on. 

A blast was fired and the entire rock wall that Zim stood on collapsed. 

The Grendels screeched and scattered. A rock slide far worse than what Red had accidentally caused was occurring. Whatever Zim had hit was a fundamental piece of the entire left side of the great rocky cliffs of Beo Wulf. 

The Grendel that was closest to Zim, aware of its sure and imminent death, grabbed Zim with its large hand and angrily threw him as it fell. Zim hit the opposite rock wall violently and slid onto the ground limply. 

Rocks tumbled down at such a force that the layout of the area completely changed. What was once two tall walls that surrounded a narrow path was now a small, condensed area with a smaller climbable wall that could lead them out of the dead-end they were stuck in.

Everything was eerily silent…

Red was relieved to be alive and turned to Zim, wanting to congratulate him on his innovative and quick thinking, but then he found that Zim still lay motionless on the ground…A splatter of pink blood was left imprinted on the rocks that he was thrown against. 

“…Zim?” he asked tentatively, slowly approaching Zim’s body. He poked at Zim’s shoulder with his foot. When he got no response, he knelt down next to him to get a more in-depth look. 

Zim definitely wasn’t a corpse. He was still breathing, and his PAK was emitting the recognizable whirring sound of it trying to repair its host’s injuries. 

Well this was troublesome…Zim was sufficiently injured enough to be immobilized and with that as well as getting attacked by the Grendels, the other elites were likely much farther ahead of them by now. 

Red could just abandon Zim, run on ahead, and gain first-place as he so eagerly desired…But for some reason, he still stood there.

Would Zim do the same for him? Probably not. 

If it were the other way around, knowing Zim, he would either assume Red was fine or be so antsy and distracted that he would leave Red behind…

Zim was likely just trying to save himself…but Red was still saved by his actions. 

So Red sat beside Zim, huddled up in their personal crater of sediments, in complete silence. 

Zim was annoying and bad stuff always happened when he was around. Red knew for a fact that there must have been some malfunction in the system, that Zim shouldn’t be in Elite training in the first place. As a trainee himself, he couldn’t do anything about it.

If it were up to him, Zim would be evaluated and analyzed for what he is…

Conflicting thoughts raged through his head as they often did. Zim wasn’t a bad Irken, at least he didn’t think so. It wasn’t as if Zim hurt people intentionally…Not yet. 

Red could get lost in his thoughts, reminiscing on his own missteps as an Irken trying to fit in their all great and powerful society. It was either his increasing height or Zim’s presence that prevented his peers from realizing that Red was defective himself. A day didn’t go by where Red didn’t think his peers would eventually turn their attention towards him and his lapses in memory, his misinterpretations of words, and his occasional pity towards lesser creatures. 

Purple asked him why he was always so easy on Zim…

Red and Zim just so happened to be lost in Irk’s grand scheme, trying to find their place in Irk’s strict criteria of worthy Irkens. 

The darker side of Red found pleasure in being better than Zim in every way. He had mental stability while Zim was borderline dysfunctional. He had his tallness while Zim was condemned to be short forever. Red was going to make something of himself and Zim was doomed. Yet he still felt for Zim somehow. What he suffered with was truly out of his control, and Red seemed to be one of the few people in their platoon that knew vaguely about how to talk to Zim in a way he would understand…

Red wished he could ask what Zim meant when he said _“I know they hate me.”_

Was there really self-awareness in him? And if so, how long had he dealt with knowing his peers’ animosity for him?

If he could, he would send Zim far, far away. He’d be gone somewhere where he couldn’t hurt others and others couldn’t hurt him. He might even be happy away from Irk. That would be Red’s expression of rare compassion, it was the best Irkens were capable of. It wasn’t like there was anything to help defectives, being defective was a death sentence. 

Red closed his eyes and leaned back, exhaling out a stressed sigh. 

Zim’s healing was unnaturally slow. His faulty PAK could only do so much. 

It was moments like this, when Red was alone and left with his lingering thoughts, that he realized if wanted to achieve his vision for his future he would have to grow taller, tall enough to be tallest. 

When he would be tallest, there would be a place for him and for Zim. Hopefully Zim could eventually learn to appreciate the reason why he should be isolated away from the Irken Empire.

There was no place for him. 

But there will be a place for Red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beowulf is one of the last remaining stories written originally in old english, so I tried my hand at having the Grendels speak old english! It's very complicated so hopefully I used it correctly, here are my rough translations: 
> 
> Huntnoð - Prey  
> Ábradwe heom - Kill them


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finished! Thank you so much to everyone who read, this was really fun! <3 I hope to make more stories similar to this.

One of Beo Wulf’s two suns began to set, the other one still shining brightly in the sky amidst the night clouds. Despite orbiting two suns, the atmosphere was rather cold. 

Red wasn’t bothered in the slightest, spending his time attempting to fix his PAK legs as best he could. There were abrasions on the mechanical joints of the legs. They weren’t completely broken, but worn down by the stress they were being faced with. 

Surely, neither Red nor Zim could survive another attack from the Grendels. As the minutes turned to hours, Red grew increasingly more anxious as Zim hadn’t made any indication of getting up any time soon. 

Red had considered just carrying Zim the rest of the way, but the rational side of him was telling him that was more of a death sentence compared to waiting. 

Eventually, a pained groan escaped Zim as he sluggishly rose from the ground into a sitting position. He held a hand up to his injury that had since healed, only dried blood and some residual pain left behind. 

“Your healing process is a whole two hours longer than most Irkens,” Red stated unceremoniously, his tiredness from waiting overshadowed his relief that Zim was alright. “I counted.” 

“Egh…” Zim muttered, looking around lethargically and then setting his sights on Red. “the Grendels?” He asked. 

“Gone. You causing that rock slide separated us from them,” Red explained. “Thanks for saving us, I guess.”

Zim sat in silence for a moment, seemingly trying to absorb what Red was saying at an agonizingly slow pace.

As Zim did this, Red took the opportunity to speak his mind a bit more before their roles would return to what they once were. 

“You know, Irkens are supposed to have perfect memories because of our PAKs…but my memory isn’t so great. I forget stuff sometimes. Purple usually helps me remember, but sometimes he teases me…” Red admitted. “So uh, I kinda understand what you’re going through….Not entirely, but still.”

Right after he said what he did, he regretted it. He looked at Zim’s blank expression, anxiously waiting for how Zim would react. It wasn’t like him to admit to such weaknesses nor to stoop down to Zim’s level…Perhaps he was still feeling the aftermath of his near-death experience. 

“Eh? What are you talking about?” Zim questioned, his antennae pointed forward curiously. 

“What we talked about earlier, about us teaming up and me saying you were-“

“Yes, yes all very nice things. Zim knows! But we are behind and we’ve lost our path!” Zim quickly cut him off despite his earlier questioning, waving a dismissive hand at him as he heaved himself up. 

“Wait, do you not even remember?” Red asked… 

_“I know they hate me."_

The words Zim had said previously still lingered in the back of his mind…

Zim appeared thoughtful, almost lost, for mere seconds before returning to his usual self. 

Zim often did that, completely mentally checking out, not remembering recent conversations. Some of the other elites referred to it as glitches or short-circuiting. Now very well could have been one of those moments considering everything that happened. 

“Zim remembers everything perfectly fine,” Zim stated. He placed a cautionary hand against the very rock that had caused his injury in the first place. He looked at it, focusing on the dry bloodstain before pushing himself forward and not looking back. 

Despite his obvious vertigo, Zim was back into his “serious soldier” persona. He surveyed the area they were stuck in with his arms crossed. 

“I commend you for waiting for me to regain consciousness,” Zim spoke sincerely, but once again interjected before Red could speak- “Now make yourself useful and assist Zim!”

“Assist you how?” Red asked. “It better be good because I wasted hours of my life just watching the clouds move.” 

“Oh, it’s an ingenious plan. One that will surely gain us first place!” Zim hyped himself up. Red didn’t have the heart to tell him that they were definitely not going to take first place. 

Zim pointed to the now climbable portion of the fallen rock wall that had previously trapped them inside. 

“We climb over that wall!” He exclaimed proudly. 

_Maybe he should have just grabbed Zim and left when he was all quiet and not annoying._

“Oh wow, yeah, I never would’ve thought of that,” Red humored Zim, albeit very sarcastically. 

Zim climbed up the rocks, Red following him at a slightly slower pace. He didn’t want to damage his PAK legs any further in case he needed them later. Given how much trouble they had already got themselves into, it was safe to assume more would be headed their way soon enough. 

As their journey continued after its abrupt stop and long pause, Red’s mind wandered back to his interactions with Zim prior. 

How stupid was he? Opening up to someone like Zim? He shouldn’t be opening up anything. Any self-conscious thoughts he had regarding his own shortcomings were never meant to be spoken of. 

Relating to Zim? 

Purple would be appalled by him. 

Still…Zim never ceased to surprise him, not after all the years of knowing him and being forced to train alongside him. 

Perhaps it was because Zim was always unpredictable. His mentality was volatile, and while his actions usually lead to disaster, sometimes they helped. 

The battlefield was still no place for him, He shouldn’t be here at all…But when it came to quick and tactical thinking, Zim _actually_ succeeded. Red had never seen Zim’s wits being used for actual good. No wonder Skoodge was still alive despite spending so much time with him…That and Skoodge was a miraculously sturdy little Irken. 

Their walking finally brought them to somewhere substantial, the ford… _fjord_. 

It was a far more impressive sight than when he’d first viewed it from a distance. Ice built up along the deep and narrow inlet of land and sea. It resembled a passageway, much like the mazes they were walking through before, except this time it was made entirely of water. Taking this path would lead them to the mountain they had to reach…Getting across the moat would prove difficult as Irkens were not known to be good swimmers. 

Their installed jet-packs could not take them long distances and even if the water was “clean”, their technology could be ruined by water damage if they weren’t careful. 

As Red came to a stop at the edge of the water to think over what to do, Zim continued onward.

“Hey! Stop, you idiot!” Red called out to him. “We can’t cross it like that!”

“I’ll show you! No fjord can stop ZIM!!!” He declared, his march turning into a run. 

He came up as close as he could before the waves started coming closer. Zim ran in the opposite direction to escape it, wincing as the water caused his skin to sizzle, despite it barely touching him. Either the water was indeed dirty, or Zim was just overly sensitive. Both were feasible.

“I told you.” Red declared irritatedly. It didn’t take Zim very long to get under Red’s skin once again. The appreciation he had for Zim’s quick-thinking during the Grendel assault was diminishing.

“We’ll have to find some other way to get across,” Red stated. 

His eyes drifted to the thick layers of ice building up on the shoreline they stood on, some forming tall and sharp stalagmites. He walked over to inspect them closer. They were thick enough that if he hollowed a part of it out, it could feasibly support him and Zim in it. 

“What are you doing?” Zim poked out from behind his shoulder, copying Red’s subconscious gesture of holding his chin with his hand in thought. Red quickly lowered his hand and took out his PAK legs. 

His front PAK legs formed a carving laser, a sharp line between the two points. He cut clean through a shard of the thick ice and watched as it fell onto the ground beside them. Its obelisk shape could make keeping balance difficult but they didn’t have time to fix its shape. 

“Make yourself useful and help me hollow this out enough for us to fit in it,” Red ordered.

Zim, being his usual defiant self, seemed annoyed that he wasn’t in charge of the situation and decided to spin Red’s demand into something that suited his narrative. 

“Zim will do better than that!” he declared, taking out his laser gun and carving a line across the thick ice obelisk. 

The laser chipped away at the ice, sharps of it flying outwards in all kinds of directions. Red had to cover his face to avoid getting cut by them. As the heat of the laser melted a good portion of the ice, it became neither deep nor wide enough for either of them to slip into. 

“HAHA!” Zim laughed victoriously.

“Great, we still aren’t done yet though,” Red pointed out. 

He saw Zim preparing to shoot again and Red roughly grabbed the laser out of his hands and stood up tall. 

“Hey! You can’t go overboard or you’ll break it!” he stated. Once he was sure Zim wasn’t going to try anything, he gave it back. “You need to show some restraint once in a while.”

Zim huffed and turned his back to him. Despite his stubbornness, Zim would act docile towards Red on occasion. His ego was usually big enough to fill up an entire room, but when faced by someone taller than him and therefore more powerful, Irk’s societal values could quell Zim momentarily. No matter how big he acted, deep down he was still the smallest trainee.

Red continued to carve into their ice boat. Though it was uneven, Red could probably even it out by having Zim sit in the front. Annoyingly enough, Zim would love that.

An ominous sound emerged from the distance, a forewarning that their previous foes were on the verge of returning. 

Both Red and Zim’s antennae shot up and they gave each other a look of apprehension.

“Hurry!” Zim begged. 

Red dropped what he was doing and pushed their ice boat into the water. Zim hurriedly jumped in and nestled himself into the front of the ship.

Once properly afloat, Red flung himself inside as well, using his PAK legs to steady his weight and avoid capsizing. He turned to look at where he and Zim once stood.

Now, there was a group of Grendels grouping up on the shore. None of them attempted to delve into the water to get them. 

Zim and Red celebrated this successful evasion together in an embarrassing display of camaraderie, their hands clasped together momentarily before they quickly removed themselves. 

The Grendels were shouting one word repeatedly…

“Aglæcwif! Aglæcwif! Aglæcwif!”

“Ah-glack-weef?” Zim tried to repeat their noises one syllable at a time. “What does that mean?”

The motion of the water changed drastically as their ice boat rocked back and forth. Then, the water steadily dragged them farther and farther away, scraping past stray rocks and leading them straight into a cavern. 

That was not where they needed to be. 

Without any easy way to push themselves ahead, Red opted to stick his arm into the water to try to control the course their boat took. He could only keep it in for so long before it started to sting.

Zim seemed to notice this and insisted on pulling Red back into the boat. 

“You fool, this current isn’t natural,” Zim harshly whispered.

“What do you mean?” Red whispered back. 

_“Something is doing this on purpose,”_ Zim replied cryptically.

Before Red could question him further, their ice boat was pulled into a sort of whirlpool and stuck there, slowly rotating in a circular movement. 

Out of the depths extended an arm, the palm of its hand twice the size of the Irkens’ bodies. Another arm joined it and both were pressed up against the interior of the cave, stray rocks falling into the water under the sheer pressure of the creature lifting themselves out of the water. 

Two pairs of piercing white eyes glared down at them, a drastic contrast from the previous Grendels. But when the scales of the creature began to illuminate in the darkness of the cave, it was evident that it had the Grendel’s grotesque face. 

This was Aglæcwif. The mother of all Grendels. 

She unhinged her jaw, unveiling her deathly sharp teeth. As she prepared to pounce on them, Zim attempted to fire a shot into her mouth via his laser gun but missed due to their constant rotation. 

His blast blew off a portion of the cave. The Aglæcwif saw it, but was only distracted momentarily before she returned her gaze to the two of them, angrier than before. Red could see it, she was reaching for Zim, so he grabbed Zim and pulled him ahead of him. He unveiled his PAK legs extended them as a protective barrier from Aglæcwif’s grip. 

She made an angered noise, fiercely grabbed Red’s PAK legs, and yanked them. 

Zim didn’t let go of him. In fact, Zim was trying to pull him back into their boat. 

Without so much of a second thought, Red clung to Zim who was only able to hold his small body down by his PAK legs and heels. He pulled Red closer with their chests touching. Zim steadied his laser gun in the crook of Red’s shoulder and shot at Aglæcwif before the boat could turn. 

The shot connected with her forearm and traveled up to her shoulder. She recoiled and dropped Red back into the boat and on top of Zim. 

The attack was enough to stun her, and her self-made whirlpool lost its verbatim. They were free to escape. 

Red had very little time to come up with a good escape plan. He looked down at his battered and useless PAK legs that hung limply next to him and he got an idea.

Red pried at mechanical joints and plucked the legs right out of his PAK. He stuck one into the water, his hand included to help it gain some traction.

Zim copied his actions but found it hard to keep his hand underwater for too long. As soon as they were out of the cave and back into the open water, Zim changed his position. Facing towards Aglæcwif's open cavern, Zim prepared for her to reappear with a vengeance, and Red could see where his laser gun was pointed. 

“Another evasive maneuver?” Red questioned breathlessly. He was losing momentum and was genuinely eagerly hoping that Zim’s tricks would play in their favor. 

Zim glanced at him and smirked. 

“A soldier should always take advantage of what’s available to them,” He replied. It was strangely sound advice. 

Aglæcwif followed them, furious and out to kill. 

Zim fired multiple shots both at the mass of rocks within the fjord and at Aglæcwif. Even as she angrily pursued them, the combination of falling rocks and the force caused by Aglæcwif’s erratic movements in the water pushed Zim and Red further away. 

Finally, amidst a rock slide greater than the first one, Aglæcwif got lost in the huge wave that erupted and threatened to knock Zim and Red right over. The two of them held on for dear life, their skin being burned in the process of their refusal to let go of their boat as the waves jostled them erratically.

Once the crashing waves died down, everything settled down into a serene and silent still. Zim and Red lay on the deck of their makeshift boat, side by side, Zim facing the stern and Red facing the bow. Both stared up at the sky that was finally starting to show signs of night. 

The stars were especially remarkable to two trainees who hardly had the time to appreciate these sorts of things. 

Once the daze and exhaustion began to subside, the two exchanged small talk. 

“I never want to be on a planet full of unstable tectonics ever again,” Red admitted. 

“I never want to be on a planet full of disgusting smelly creatures ever again,” Zim added. 

“Hey Zim?”

“Hm?”

“Did you really not remember our previous conversation? About being defective and stuff…”

Zim fell silent for at least a solid minute before responding. 

“Zim does vaguely recall something of the sort, but that doesn’t matter…I don’t remember specifics.” 

In a moment of vulnerability, Red replied…

“Me too, sometimes.” 

They floated around for what felt like hours. Neither of them had the energy to try and paddle towards their destination. They just appreciated the calm they had so rarely experienced, not as a tall Irken and a short Irken, but as equals who had survived together. 

Conveniently, their boat drifted to the mountain they needed to reach. They knew this because Commander Poki was standing there at the base. She was both relieved and angry to see the two of them again. If they took any longer, she would have written them off as dead and all of the Irkens would leave the planet without them. 

It felt great to be in Irken territory amongst their own kind. The humble little trainee tent was filled with charging stations, snack machines, and everything a young Irken could need on their missions. Red was aware that he would need to meet a PAK technician to fix his damaged parts, but frankly, that could wait. He was awaiting some much needed downtime after their crazy adventure. 

Their old partners, Purple and Skoodge, eagerly greeted them. Their relief was even greater than Poki’s. 

“I thought you died! But you’re alive!” Purple cheered. “What took you so long? Actually, wait, you don’t have to answer that. I already know.”

Red half-heartedly laughed, happy to move on to a different subject. “How did the mission go with Skoodge?” 

“Surprisingly well. He’s pretty strong for an ugly short Irken,” Purple gave a sort of mix between a compliment and an insult. “Thankfully that’s over. So, how bad was your alone time with you-know-who?”

Red’s gaze drifted over to where Zim was emphatically recounting his journey to Skoodge with exaggerated details. Skoodge listened patiently as Zim narrated each encounter he and Red came across with so much energy, it was hard to imagine he was gravely injured not that long ago. 

Truthfully, Red couldn’t say it was awful. Zim got him into trouble, but Zim also got him out of it. He knew he just happened to be on the right side of Zim, in any other situation Zim could have viewed him as disposable…

Their interactions together were bound to lead to more precarious situations. There was a chance that they could eventually be on opposite rides rather than the same. But for now, they worked well together. That was worth his respect. 

“He’s an annoying little bug, but…I don’t know, he’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad? What are you even talking about?” Purple questioned. “Did you hit your head or something?”

“No, but he did,” Red said. “it’s actually a really long story.”

“Spare me the details, you’ve gone crazy from being around him so long.” Purple dismissed. “Grab a snack. You look super worn out.” 

So he did. As he ate, he paused to remember where he was and who he was during this moment in time. Should he reach a point in his life where he has situated his own position in society, he’d be sure to find a place for Zim, no matter where that place would be. 

Zim was capable, but he was dangerous too. Red was lucky to have Zim by his side, but was bound to be unlucky and on the opposite of it. 

He was growing, Zim was not. 

By the time Red was tall enough to take charge, he would be able to decide what was right for everyone. 

He would remember what Zim did today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aglæcwif - Another name for Grendel's mother, this also translates to "Warrior Woman"


End file.
